


I can feel it like a monsoon (hovering above me)

by blackkat



Series: Tumblr Drabbles [102]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, First Meetings, M/M, terrible flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 13:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15842370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: Shikamaru squints at him out of one eye. “Omoi,” he says, exasperated.“I'm going to be the first Avatar to ever throw the world out of balance,” Omoi says. “I'm going to cause—”“—me to go prematurely bald,” Shikamaru interrupts, and reaches up to grab his wrist, dragging him down onto the blanket next to him.





	I can feel it like a monsoon (hovering above me)

Omoi is going to be the first Avatar in the history of the world who can't master all four elements. He’s going to bring the wrath of the spirit world down on himself with his incompetence. He’s going to throw the whole world out of balance and cause floods and earthquakes and _fire tornadoes_ and—

“Oh my god, you had _one bad day_ ,” Shikamaru says, sounding exhausted as he slumps face-first into his bedroll. “Calm down, _please_. Just being _near_ you is giving me hives from all the stress.”

Omoi groans, pressing his hands over his face. Great, he’s going to run off his earthbending instructor, too, on top of everything else. And then Shikamaru will probably tell people just how useless Omoi is, and no other earthbender will ever want to teach him—

Shikamaru squints at him out of one eye. “Omoi,” he says, exasperated.

“I'm going to be the first Avatar to ever throw the world out of balance,” Omoi says. “I'm going to cause—”

“—me to go prematurely bald,” Shikamaru interrupts, and reaches up to grab his wrist, dragging him down onto the blanket next to him. Before Omoi can do more than blink at him, Shikamaru drops his head in his lap, and says, half-muffled, “You still did better than I managed on my first day of training. You're fine.”

Omoi breathes out a heavy sigh, rolling his eyes skyward, but he doesn’t miss the opportunity to sink his fingers into Shikamaru’s thick hair and run the strands between his fingers. Shikamaru is a genius, but he doesn’t _get it_. Omoi doesn’t just need to be _fine_ , he needs to actually learn earthbending so he can _be_ the Avatar and not just another Kumo cloudbender who wandered down from the mountains with no idea what was really happening in the world.

But—

Shikamaru sighs, turning his head into Omoi's fingers, and asks plaintively, “Can we sleep now?”

“You’ll wake up starving if you don’t eat first,” Omoi points out, and Shikamaru grumbles something indistinct and unhappy into his knee. It makes Omoi smile a little, because Shikamaru puts him in mind of the big, lazy cat Mabui owns, forever indignant at everything. Of all the people Omoi could have tripped over as he fled Kumo and A’s grim certainty that they were better off locking themselves into the city, Shikamaru is probably the best. Not that _Shikamaru_ thinks so, likely—he’s made his opinion of world-saving quests and having to expend _effort_ clear often enough.

He’s also getting tenser and tenser in Omoi's lap, breathing going still, and Omoi lifts his hand in panic, wondering if he hurt him, if he rubbed too hard, if Shikamaru’s hair is sore, or maybe he wasn’t actually joking about Omoi making him bald and if Omoi keeps rubbing at Shikamaru’s hair it’s all going to fall out—

In a blur of movement, Shikamaru shoves upward, rolls into a crouch and brings his hands up hard. Omoi recognizes the feel of bending half a second before the ground surges up, then falls away, and there's a shout.

 _Oh_ , Omoi thinks, and it’s a relief, honestly, that this is just a fight. He can handle a fight. He just can't handle Shikamaru hating him for pulling all his hair out. Fights are easy, and he’s had more than enough of them since leaving Kumo to know that they're survivable. Turning, he lunges for his sword, grabs it and unsheathes it, and rises to his feet even as Shikamaru curses.

“I didn’t get him,” Shikamaru warns sharply, and Omoi's eyes narrow. Best approach to their camp is—

“South!” Shikamaru calls, even as Omoi turns, and the blade of his longsword collides with a shorter tantō, a ringing crash that vibrates up his arms. Dark eyes go wide, and the stranger disengages in a whirl of movement, disengaging and leaping into a backwards flip over another surge of earth. Quick, Omoi thinks, spitting out the stick of his lollipop so that he doesn’t choke and falling back towards the cover of the trees. And—he moves like an airbender, light-footed and blindingly fast, airborne more often than not as he dodges past Shikamaru, twists—

One hand out, step, _turn_ , and the energy inside of Omoi shivers, _pulls_. They're halfway up a mountain, and it isn't one of Kumo's towering peaks, but it’s high enough. There's water in the clouds above them, and cloudbenders aren’t like their cousins in Kiri, or the branch in Konoha; this is halfway to airbending, but flows like waterbending. Omoi drags the closest cloud down around them, fills the air with vapor and cold air and _breathes_.

There's a cry, a crash. Omoi spreads his fingers, lifts his hands, and the cloud condenses, whirling back into the sky like a waterfall rising in reverse. In its absence, it’s easy to see the intruder, sprawled on the ground with ice ringing his hands and feet.

“I always forget how useful that is,” Shikamaru says lazily, brushing off his pants, but his eyes are sharp as he approaches.

Omoi slides his sword away, still tense and ready to move. What if there are more men? What if someone got past Shikamaru and is about to stab him? What if the stranger is actually—

“Nice,” the man laughs, and rolls. Even as Omoi shouts a warning, dragging Shikamaru back, the stranger breathes out a surge of flame that melts Omoi's ice, washes across the grass and towards their feet. Omoi grabs for water, calls up a spray of ice that melts under the force of the heat and then sweeps through the steam, water like a whip in his hands, and—

“Easy!” the stranger protests, still sitting on the ground, and he raises his hands, giving Omoi a bright smile. “I'm just looking for food, I swear, I thought I could take some from you guys—”

“You were going to rob us?” Shikamaru demands, exasperated. “What part of us says easy target?”

“You were cuddling!” the stranger protests. “I didn’t expect you to _see_ me! How did you even do that?”

“Vibrations in the ground,” Shikamaru says, unimpressed, and steps out from behind Omoi. Glances at the melting ice, the rising cloud, and says, “You’re getting better at that.”

Omoi makes a face, but lets the water slide back into his canteen and corks it. “If you’re a firebender, why are you stealing food?” he asks, and there are too many possibilities. He could be a deserter, or a scout, or an enemy of Fire Country. Could possibly be a part of the rebellion that they’ve heard rumors of, but Omoi is pretty sure their luck isn't that good.

The man hesitates, looking from Omoi to Shikamaru and back again. His eyes linger, and despite the humor that was in his face a moment ago his eyes are sharp. It makes Omoi think again of how he moved, so precise and swift.

“I've never seen waterbending like that before,” he says instead of answering, and meets Omoi's gaze.

“Cloudbenders don’t leave Kumo often,” Omoi says, which is noncommittal enough that it’s gotten them past at least three Earth Country checkpoints so far.

But the firebender’s eyes widen, and he rises to his feet in a flicker of that blurred-quick motion. “You’re a swordsman,” he says, like it’s a realization. “A Kumo swordsman traveling with an earthbender. You're the Avatar!”

Damn. Omoi tenses, and Shikamaru gets a hand on his shoulder, steps right in front of him. “You’d better hope the next words out of your mouth are _never mind, my mistake_ or we’re going to have a problem,” he says, steady and cold in a way Omoi has only seen a handful of times.

The stranger raises his hands again, taking a step back. “I'm Uchiha Shisui,” he says evenly, like that’s supposed to mean something. Except that it clearly means something to Shikamaru, who tenses like Shisui just declared that he was the Hokage and here for Omoi's head. And maybe he _is_ the Hokage, though Omoi could have sworn that was Shimura Danzō. What if he _is_ here for Omoi's head? Omoi has fought firebenders, but not _really_ , and he’s always tried to escape rather than win. What if Shisui is as good as he seems? What if he’s better than Omoi and Shikamaru combined? What if they lose and get dragged to Fire Country in chains and have to spend the rest of their days in some Fire Country prison somewhere?

“You were next in line for the throne,” Shikamaru says, and there are thoughts flying behind his eyes, a thousand facts considered in an instant. “Weren’t you exiled?”

Shisui hesitates, but he looks at Omoi again, and something in his face softens a little. “I was,” he says quietly, “but then Danzō took over, and I wouldn’t teach him how to bend lightning.”

 _Lightning_. Omoi's breath catches, because that’s a technique no one has used in _centuries_. It’s supposed to be lost, a mystery, and he takes a step forward before he can help himself.

“You can bend lightning?” he asks.

Shisui smiles at him, a quick flicker of a grin that’s both charming and cheeky. “Yeah, I figured it out a few years ago. Have you mastered firebending yet? I can show you how. You're going up against Danzō, right? That’ll _definitely_ knock him for a loop, and give you an advantage.”

Shikamaru opens his mouth like he’s going to protest, pauses, shuts it again. He trades looks with Omoi, and it’s easy enough to see they're having the same thought. Lightning would _definitely_ be a leg up against Danzō, and if Shisui really is on the run, if he’s as good as being next in line for the throne implies—

Well. Omoi is going to need a firebending master all too soon, and he’d really rather not have to ask a Fire Country soldier, or try to figure it out on his own.

“This is a bad idea,” Shikamaru tells him. “This is the _worst_ idea. It’s going to be _troublesome_.”

Omoi doesn’t even attempt to tell him it’s going to be fine. It’s probably not. It’s probably going to end in smoking craters and the world out of balance. But that doesn’t mean they can stop _trying_.

“I’ve only just started earthbending,” Omoi tells Shisui. “It might take a while to get that far in firebending.”

Shisui looks him over, glances at Shikamaru. Then he smiles, and says, “I’ll stick around for a bit, then. You're cute enough to make it worthwhile.”

Omoi flushes even as he rolls his eyes, and Shikamaru makes a sound like a wet cat, pulling Omoi back a step. “Stop that,” he tells Shisui.

“Why?” Shisui protests, though that grin is _almost_ a smirk. “It’s just a compliment! And besides, you’re cute too! I'm just _saying_ , there are benefits here.”

“Troublesome,” Shikamaru mutters, but he’s pointedly looking away, the tips of his ears dull red, and Omoi snickers. Before he can even start to tease Shikamaru, though, Shisui's stomach growls loudly enough for all of them to hear it, and he turns red.

“We were just about to make dinner,” Omoi tells him, and steps back.

Shisui laughs, and follows him back towards the small campfire without hesitation. “This is the _best_ failed robbery,” he decides. “I should jump strangers more often.”

“Please don’t,” Omoi says plaintively. He covers his face and groans, thinking of Earth Country troops chasing them over the border, Water Country princes up in arms, Wind Country’s airbenders coming for their blood.

When he manages to pry his fingers off his face, Shisui is watching him with amusement. “Do you always worry this much?” he asks, grinning.

“You have no idea,” Shikamaru says, exhausted, and throws himself back down on the bedroll. Apparently Omoi is the one cooking tonight, then. Like most nights. “He does it _constantly._ ”

“I worry exactly enough,” Omoi says, offended, because he’s the Avatar in a world where Fire Country has decided there shouldn’t be Avatars, or balance, or other countries, and he’s on the run with an earthbender noble and now an exiled Fire Country prince, and there's _nothing_ worry-free about _any_ of that.

Shikamaru groans expressively, and Shisui laughs. Omoi rolls his eyes at both of them.


End file.
